Tales from today's commute....

[Arjimlad]

Lovely weather for riding to work. An injudicious fast overtake into the path of an oncoming driving school car, carried out by a young woman in a Vauxhall Corsa, caused some alarm & is being reported.

As is the young woman in a Vauxhall Adam who made a late lane change and then was using her phone in her right hand for an animated conversation, with her vape in her left hand, all picked up very clearly on the helmet camera before she drove off carrying on with this behaviour.

 

[HLaB]

After PB'ing on the club 10 last night I was buzzing and right on cue I started getting work emails to wind me up more. Great, not, as I needed to be up early to go into the office. I thought about being lazy and taking the train most of the way. I'm glad I never and got off two stops before the office town and cycle the 11.5miles, as it was ideal commuting weather today and the roads were relatively empty. It greyed over during the day and looked a muggy evening commute back but the moment I stepped out of the office the sun came out and it quite warm s the wind had switched to a south one and I was blown northbound. If I hadn't been racing tomorrow I think I would have got of the train a stop early and been blown the 17 miles home.

 

[wafter]

Sodding cold this morning

 

[cyberknight]

Back to the grindstone.
Cycle path so overgrown it's nigh on impossible to ride , the grass about 3 foot high and wet through so my legs and feet were soaked.only alternative is to ride on the dual carriageway, against the traffic on the way home too.
I have repeatedly reported this .I'm going to take photos now and complain again

 

[PedallingNowhereSlowly]

Sounds just like a stretch of A34 between Stone and Stafford where I had to resort to riding on the dual carraigeway yesterday.
I'm not even sure which bits of the footway you can cycle on as the signage is so poor; I know some of it is part of NCN Route 5.

I missed 4 days of the 'faux commute' last week due to a dog walking related injury. Back to it today - it was cold and wet initially but brightened up nicely toward the end of it. Gave way at a Zebra crossing for a pair of ducks. Had a moton overtake on approach to a roundabout - as it's quiet residential street, it's a bit odd so the road doesn't really widen out. Moton has clearly misjudged speed and/or failed to account for oncoming vehicle leaving the roundabout, which was forced to stop due to the botched overtaking manouvre. Similar thing happened on approach to a different junction last week.

 

[cyberknight]

sent photos to my local councillor and reported it again ....

 

[simongt]

In order to do some shopping for my terminally ill sister, I had to commute by car today; something that is extremely rare for me.
Excepting that it was for a good reason, as I invariably get round the city on my Brommy, cor it was a drag - !

 

[palinurus]

September fingers in June

 

[wafter]

September fingers in June

How does June feel about that?


Yesterday I ran the whole gamut of emotions. The cold, overcast ride in did little to alleviate the abject misery and existential dread met upon waking, however the weather gradually improved throughout the day and the ride home was gloriously sunny, if still not particularly warm.

Pushed the distance out a bit more and stopped for some hoop action in the park. A little girl seemed enthralled as she passed and I offered her a go, but her mother declined. As usual the hoops have given me a good hammering so the remaining portion of the ride was more sedate if more up-beat thanks to the endorphines generated by the other end of my body to usual.

Still felt good this morning; more sun today and a fairly rapid trip in, amongst absolutely loads of fellow cyclists.. which was nice

 

[cyberknight]

September fingers in June

I was in early spring clothes this morning, about 6 c when I set off

 

[HLaB]

September fingers in June

I had meeting on site today, so met them there for an excuse to bag some OS tiles (I blame @Supersuperleeds , they blame Southampton ) and with the temperatures forecast I opted for bib longs rather than standing about in the cold 🥶
Some lovely country lanes enjoyed though, just after the rat run they are known for and I got to find a nice 11% (I really must fix the rear derailleur so I can use the 38t front ring, at the moment its not got enough tension if I don't use the 52t ).
I still had the bug at night and plotted a route to bag a few more tiles. After bagging them I arrived over 20min2 early for the train and thought about going exploring and maybe getting more tiles. I'm glad I never shortly after I was undercover it started light rain which within minute turned real heavy for around 5 minutes and stayed heavy for 5 minutes more! Fortunately by the time I got off the train, the sky had turned blue and the roads were dry 👍

 

[fossyant]

My gears were not behaving on the way to work and home - indexing out and wouldn't play properly. Once home, removed the cable and 'loop' at the mech - full of crud. Cable was still in great condition (stainless) so cleaned it and fitted new outer. All working. Although, my BBB Jockey wheels are shot - not the teeth, but there is loads of play in the cartridge bearings. Ordered a new pair - Amazon says these were ordered 12 months ago. They don't last as well as Tacx, but a year of commuting in bad weather isn't too shabby.

So, if you can't get your indexing right, change your cables and make sure they are good ones (I always tell people this, but 'someone' ignored everyone on here and decided to order a whole new groupset instead of replacing with SP41cables - not me).

 

[wafter]

The "highlight" of tonight's ride home was hitting a massive lip in the abysmal cycle path next to the dual carriageway heading towards Peartree, causing my water bottle to be ejected from the deep pocket on the back of my front bag before idly rolling onto the dual carriageway to be run over by some absolute knobhead in a Tesla. Funny how they didn't see the white bottle against the tarmac... I wonder if they'd have noticed had it been a brick or a small child..

Miraculously the bottle appears to have survived intact, but obviously I was not happy. This was only futher componded later in the car by some imbecile in a Mercedes casually wafting past me on a lazy blind bend; narrowly avoiding a head-on with a car coming the other way.

Once more, I despair for the state of the world thanks to the idiocy of some of those I'm forced to share it with

 

[Pgd]

Feeling good on the commute home yesterday, so decided to really give it some welly up College Road/Fountain Drive... and was rewarded by knocking over 10 secs off my PB 😮😁.

 

[fossyant]

Shifting back to being perfect on the commute today, after the change of the gear outer cable loop at the rear mech. New jockey's fitted tonight after getting home.